Lockheed Super Constellation "Great Planes"

I have 2500 hours on the EC-121 with the 552nd (McClellan AFB) and the 79th (Homestead AFB). The Connie was the finest 3 engine airplane ever built... and if you ever flew them more than once, you'd understand.

1960, My family flew back to the states from Japan in an AF Connie....Stopping at Midway to refuel and Honolulu then to Travis AFB..

A beatiful design that has earned my respect when I flew in 1957 in a Comnie to Australia . Our family was 12 people . It felt as being at home. When the whole family finally arrived in Scheyville Migrant Holding Centre near the towmship of Windsor me and a brother hitchhked all the way back to Kingston Smith Airport Sydney some 65 miles just to see her again. On the way back we slept in a policestation .The officers could hardly believe our story.. That's how much we loved "our " Connie.

⭐️ The golden era of air transport 🌟

McGuire AFB, stopover at Lages Field in the Azores to refuel and on to Rhein-Main.
MATS operation. In my memory for all time.

My first time flying was this bird in 1965.

My father flew in a Connie in the Navy after the war. He was a radar operator. The flew up and down the US eastern seaboard searching for enemy airplanes and ships.

I would rather see this still in service. Then a 80 year old B-52 that the B1-B can do better...

And look where we're at now, can't even figure out what bathroom to use. America is the walking dead.

The Connie - such a lovely 'plane, finest of all the propeller-driven liners - with its distinctive humped back and triple tail fin. Such a pity none will ever fly again. BTW, the Connie appears in no fewer than 3 famous sci-fi/horror flicks from the 1950s: 'When Worlds Collide' (1951), 'Godzilla' (1954) and 'Night of the Demon' (1957)

Beautiful plane. I flew on KLM and Air France Constellations. My parents / sister flew on TWA Connies between Ciro and Geneva. Also Air India. However one TWA Connie crashed on take off from King Farouk Airport after take off late at night.

The last airliner to use the Wright Cyclone engines? Where is the Wright Aviation Company today?

I fondly remember working the super G’s at Washington National when Eastern Air lines used them as shuttle a/c.
Many a white shirt got spotted with oil from them.
Most graceful looking a/c on the planet.❤

Beautiful planes!!! The curvy lines and the Triple Fins made these planes so unique... And when taking off, The sound of those mighty 3,350's just roaring was seriously awesome.... Graceful and quite fast, with the Amazing lines of a shapely woman, it is little wonder why so many people felt safe and at-home when boarding these amazing planes...
It's a shame that so many of them were scrapped because of being quickly replaced by the Jet planes... But they will never be forgotten....
Thank You for posting this!!!

Excellent video. One of my earliest memories is of standing on the tarmac at what is now SFO at age five in 1959. My family had deplaned via the air stairs, and while my sisters negotiated the stairs I happened to look up at that triple stabilizer. Five years later I walked through an EC-121 during Armed Forces day at Hamilton AFB. I still remember all of the radar screens, one after the other on both sides of the cabin.

I was hired by Eastern Airlines in 1966 with 168 hours flying time. I went from a Cessna 172 to the right seat of the Constellation and logged 265 hours flying the shuttle between LGA and DCA. Great airplane!!!

The Eastern Airlines Shuttle Newark (EWR) to Washington (DCA). I enjoyed sitting at a window on the leading edge of the wing looking down the throat of the exhaust on the Constilation. Always at night, I commuted for a year every weekend in the early 60's. Thanks to the Team at Lockheed.

First job as a Lockheed engineer was refurbishing WV-2 fleet for the Navy with new electronics. Later flew on Lockheed's private airline to area 51 on Connies. Loved them.

The Connie is the most beautiful plane on the planet 🛩

I got to fly in one while in the Navy stationed at NAS Oceana,Va. we were transported to Fallon,No for exercises

I got to ride on a Connie on R&R from Vietnam to Taiwan and back in 1966.

My Dad bought used DC -2’s from Doug Davis for a little airline startup called Delta Airlines. I was two weeks old when my Mom, Dad and I were flown to California where we lived for 2 years while Dad inspected and bought aircraft. I still have a very fancy looking certificate of the occasion.

First plane that I ever flew in.

I flew from Anchorage to Adak Naval air station in a Constellation...the year was 1964..worked in the control center at Navcommsta for one year...

I was lucky enough in 1990 to take a ride (and skydive out) on one of the last few flying Connies at a skydive convention. Worth every penny it cost.

A lifetime of beautiful memories brought back. It is some 75 years since I last saw the Super Connie which was being operated between South Africa and Perth, Western Australia when I was working at
Perth Airport. Their terminal was right next door to our hangar and I loved seeing them in all their beauty. Thank you for this great story. If memory serves me, the Engineer in Perth was Kyril Bolonkin, (I hope I got his name close to correct spelling) a big man who lived for the Connies.

The should have upgraded the engines to P&W R-4360 Corncobs!

Always specify wing tanks when ordering a Connie: the world's most beautiful airliner.

I get it now... it was a giant "tri-skag" in the air vs waves brah'

Funnily enough, I fell in love with this plane as well as the DC-3 (yes, I'm an aviation slut) through their apperances in early Tintin albums.

A great series and a great episode.

It's better than anythng flying today.

Don't forget the tragic Grand Canyon collision...Awesome Ship, Juan's Bavy ✈️🫠

Focke Wulf / Kurt Tank FW 200 CONDOR

Absolutely the most beautiful aircraft ever designed and produced!

Génial !!! On n'y apprend même pas le vrais nom de cet avion !

The Navy was still flying them in Vietnam,late 60s

Excellent stuff bro

A pity that a lot of them just crash.

Connie was at EAA this year.

Yes she is back, but not very well, she had cancer on her tong and removed by surgery and is recovering. Rest is fine

While the USA was fully into piston engined long haul aircraft, England (and Canada) were busy building jet airliners.

In the middle 1960's I was a truck driver in the New Jersey Army Reserve National Guard, and one Saturday we had a mission to transport another Guard unit to Maguire Air Base so they could be flown to an Army base in the south somewhere.

At Maguire there were a dozen or more various types of transport aircraft waiting to load troops to fly these guys off to wherever. A bunch of C-119's and other stuff. I remember that scene as though it happened yesterday morning. Guy's scattered all over the place sitting on the grass waiting to get directions to a plane. There were planes that were loaded with troops and several planes that they couldn't keep one of the engines running. The engine would run for a while and then cough to a stop and it would have trouble starting again. Most of these things were older planes and we the truck drivers were surprised that were actually using those planes rather than cutting them into pieces and selling the material as scrap.

But there was one plane that was absolutely magnificent, a bright silver Super Constellation

. I had never been that close to one of those before.

I'll remember that airplane forever. Good Lord, that airplane was BEAUTIFUL.

I'm just downloading it to the MSFS. But, boy, is it complex!!!!!

Had the jet age happened a bit later we may have gotten the turboprop Connie. Who knows if like the Hercules it too would still be in use today.

My grandpa worked on these planes in the navy talks about it all the time like it was yesterday

The quality of the film clips is just awful. Nearly unwatchable.

They should have made Bose noise, cancellation, headsets

Like a swan…